April 09, 2007

THE GAME Pick winner and length of each series. Four points for a regulation win, three points for an overtime win, two for a shootout— wait, no! Sorry. Sorry. One point for each correct winner, the extra point for nailing the series length as well. No points for getting the series length right and the winner wrong. All or nothing. Whaddya think this is, the NHL? THE BONUS Pick the goaltender from each conference with the best GAA in the first round. One point for each. THE SUPER BONUS Pick the total number of overtime periods in the first round. Partial periods will be rounded up to one. Worth one point.

East: Buffalo over NYI in 5 NJ over Tampa Bay in 7 Rangers over Atlanta in 6 Ottawa over Pittsburgh in 7 West: Calgary over Detroit in 6 Anaheim over Minnesota in 7 Dallas over Vancouver in 6 Nashville over San Jose in 7 East Goalie with lowest GAA: Brodeur West Goalie with lowest GAA: Turco (of course, we all realize that should someone get injured and a back-up plays one low-scoring game, then, well - whoopie shit who has the lowest GAA.) Total number of OTs: 15

East: Sabres over Islanders in 5 Devils over Lightning in 6 Thrashers over Rangers in 7 Sens over Pens in 6 West: Wings over Flames in 5 Ducks over Wild in 6 Stars over Canucks in 7 Preds over Sharks in 7 Lowest GAA (East): Brodeur Lowest GAA (West): Luongo Total no. of OT periods: 9

I'm all over this. I'd organize it too, but last year I stopped "working from home" half way through so all that free time I used to have is now gone, gone, gone. *sigh* BUF in 5. (Miller > NYI's third string) TB in 6. (My one longshot pick!) NYR in 6. (Lundqvist > Lehtenen) Gary RobertsPIT in 7. (Yeah, I'm a Leafs fan. Yeah, I'm predicting another OTT collapse) CAL in 7. (Gotta go with the Flames.) ANA in 6. (I'm really tempted to go with MIN. Got a feeling. But ANA weathered the Flames well last year and I think they'll do well against MIN). VAN in 6. (Luongo) SJ in 7. (Vokoun is the better goalie, but I think SJ will just grind NAS out). BEST GAA: Miller, Giguere TOTAL OTs: 19

(of course, we all realize that should someone get injured and a back-up plays one low-scoring game, then, well - whoopie shit who has the lowest GAA.) Good call: should we put a minimum GP on that GAA? 2, maybe 3?

NYI in 6 NJ in 6 ATL in 7 DET in 7 ANA in 6 VAN in 5 ... holy crap, Nashville and San Jose are matched up? Nice. I'd like to see as much of that series as possible. NSH in 7. East: Brodeur (it just makes sense) West: Kiprusoff (despite losing the series: super-duper low-scoring wins for DET, with a couple Hasek meltdowns and CGY blowouts) OTs: 16

East: Buffalo over NYI in 5 NJ over Tampa Bay in 7 Atlanta over NYR in 6 Ottawa over Pittsburgh in 5 West: Calgary over Detroit in 6 Anaheim over Minnesota in 5 Vancouver over Dallas in 7 Nashville over San Jose in 7 East Goalie: Miller West Goalie: Giguere OTs: 8

Buffalo over NYI in 5 NJ over Tampa Bay in 6 Rangers over Atlanta in 6 Pittsburgh over Ottawa in 7 West: Detroit over Calgary in 6 Minnesota over Anaheim in 6 Vancouver over Dallas in 6 Nashville over San Jose in 5 East Goalie: Brodeur West Goalie: Backstrom Total # of OTs: 17

Buffalo over NYI in 4 NJ over Tampa Bay in 5 Atlanta over NYR in 7 Pittsburgh over Ottawa in 6 Detroit over Calgary in 7 Anaheim over Minnesota in 6 Vancouver over Dallas in 5 San Jose over Nashville in 7 East Goalie: Miller West Goalie: Luongo Total # of OTs: 4

NYI over BUF in 7 NJ over TB in 6 NYR over ATL in 5 PIT over OTT in 4 DET over CAL in 5 ANH over MIN in 4 DAL over VAN in 6 SJ over NSH in 5 East goalie: Lundqvist West goalie: Hasek Total # of OTs: 8 Thanks for setting this up DJE.

East: Buffalo over NYI in 4 NJ over Tampa Bay in 6 Rangers over Atlanta in 7 Ottawa over Pittsburgh in 5 West: Detroit over Calgary in 6 Anaheim over Minnesota in 5 Dallas over Vancouver in 7 Nashville over San Jose in 5 East Goalie with lowest GAA: Brodeur West Goalie with lowest GAA: Hasek Total number of OTs: 7

East: Buffalo in 5 Tampa Bay in 7 Atlanta in 6 Ottawa in 7 West: Detroit in 5 Anaheim in 7 Vancouver in 6 Nashville in 5 East Goalie with lowest GAA: Lehtenen West Goalie with lowest GAA: Hasek Total number of OTs: 6

You guys are going a little nuts on the amount of overtimes that will happen in this conference quarterfinals. I think. What's the record for the amount of overtime games in a conference quarterfinal year?

Dear Jeff, It is tempting for me to charge you for my newsletter. I would like to have a certain series clinching puck that I hope you possess, but my newsletter is a free online publication. So feel free to add it to your favorites list. Here is an article I think you would find most intriguing. I hope I'm wrong, and you obliterate those dastardly Wings. Look after David Hale, best of luck to the both of you. Big sloppy wet kisses, Fritsy

You guys are going a little nuts on the amount of overtimes that will happen in this conference quarterfinals. I think. What's the record for the amount of overtime games in a conference quarterfinal year? I figure a quarter of the games have a chance of going to overtime. Maybe less. And a few of those are likely to go beyond just the one OT period and, since we're counting the number of OT periods and not OT games, I figure the number isn't that far off.

Prince of Wales Conference Buffalo in 5 New Joisey in 6 New Yowk in 7 Pittsburg in 6 Clarence Campbell Conference Calgary in 5 Anaheim in 5 Nashville in 7 Vancouver in 6 Mika K in the West Marty B in the East 8 extra peroids will be played

Buff over NYI in 5 NJ over Tampa Bay in 6 NYR over Atl in 6 Pitt over Ottawa in 7 Calgary over Detroit in 7 Anaheim over Minnesota in 5 VAN over Dallas in 6 Nashville over San Jose in 7 East Goalie with lowest GAA: Brodeur West Goalie with lowest GAA: Giguere Total number of OTs: 12

Yes, just to make it abundantly clear, we are counting individual overtime periods, not overtime games. I'd say you can count on an absolute minimum average of one overtime game per series, which is a minimum of eight periods for the first round. And the likelihood of further overtime periods decrease with the number of overtime periods play. I think it's a logarithmic curve. If that helps. Which it won't.

Yes. Actually I just figured that it appears that about 20% of NHL regular season games went to OT this year. Since these teams are more evenly competitve, I just guessed that you'll likely see 2 OT periods per series. Then I minused one. I like math.

East: Buffalo over NYI in 5 NJ over Tampa Bay in 5 Atlanta over Rangers in 7 Ottawa over Pittsburgh in 7 West: Detroit over Calgary in 5 Anaheim over Minnesota in 7 Vancouver over Dallas in 7 Nashville over San Jose in 7 East Goalie with lowest GAA: Brodeur West Goalie with lowest GAA: Giguere Total number of OTs: 18

East Buffalo over Islanders in 4 New Jersey over Tampa Bay in 5 Rangers over Atlanta in 6 Pittsburgh over Ottawa in 7 West Detroit over Calgary in 6 Anaheim over Minnesota in 6 Dallas over Vancouver in 6 San Jose over Nashville in 6 East Goalie: Fleury West Goalie: Giguere* Total OT periods in first round: 10 *I still have this crazy feeling that Mike Smith is going to replace Turco in the series, and go nuts. He's my dark horse, but I'm too chicken to actually choose him.

East Sabres over Islanders in 5 Devils over Lightning in 5 Rangers over Thrashers in 6 Pens over Sens in 7 West Flames over Wings in 6 Ducks over Wild in 5 Canucks over Stars in 7 Sharks over Preds in 6 The Bonus Lowest GAA (East): Miller Lowest GAA (West): Kipper The Super Bonus Number of OT Periods: 17

East: Buffalo over NYI in 5 NJ over Tampa Bay in 6 Rangers over Atlanta in 7 Pittsburgh over Ottawa in 6 West: Calgary over Detroit in 6 Anaheim over Minnesota in 5 Vancouver over Dallas in 7 Nashville over San Jose in 5 East Goalie with lowest GAA: Miller West Goalie with lowest GAA: Backstrom (Anaheim in 5 but Backstrom being the best keeper - good thing these picks aren't being checked for sensibility) OT periods - 19

EAST - SnowBeltShivs in 4 - Dubie won't be able to stop this offense. Garden State Gnomes of the Underworld in 6 - Home Ice will win this for Lou's legions. Sather's Squad in 7 - In a series I think will be one of the closest in the first round, Hank is the difference. Ottawa in 5 - They step up and play like the sum of their parts would indicate. I think. WEST Flames in 6. Toughness wins this one. Anaheim in 7. Minnesota has one line. Anaheim has two. Vancouver in 4 - Sorry Turco. Sharks prove to be top predator in 6 - San Jose wins it for their long time goalie coach. Goalie East - Hank Goalie West - Bobby Lu Total OT periods - 9

I don't know if I can watch this game anymore. Every time a player notices a stick within arm's reach, the arm clamps down to draw the hooking call. Every time a player notices a stick within a foot of their face, the head snaps back to draw the high sticking call. Every time there's contact on a moving player, that player goes flying to draw the trip/hook/interference. This is not hockey. This is bullshit. I hated what the game was before the rule changes, but I also hate what it's turning into. I love that the refs are calling the penalties, but I hate that the players re-adjusted to the system before the refs did. Ugh.

Oh, and what DrJohn said. I turned off the Pens-Sens game b/c of all the penalty calls late in the 1st. Note to the NHL: Constant, non-stop special teams hockey is more boring than clutch-and-grab. I'm not saying they should stop calling penalties, but it's way out of hand.

Constant special teams and clutch-and-grab aren't the only two options for hockey, though. The NHL has to take the next step in enforcing the new rules: calling the diving and the holding-the-stick penalties. AND feel free to call the coincidental diving-hooking penalties. Those are fine.

I do support the NHL's very strict high-sticking calls. Vancouver got nailed with two of them in the 2nd overtime, and while the players complained that they weren't deliberate (lifting the stick that goes bad), they have to be called, regardless of when they happen. (Note: I wish this was in effect back in the spring of 1993. Damn you, Wayne Gretzky!) I do agree that the hooking calls are getting a bit...odd. There was one call on Sidney Crosby that I STILL can't figure out what he did wrong.

You're right, grum: the high-sticking calls are the least of my worries. And yes, that hooking call on Crosby was not a good call. And yes, that high-sticking call on Alfredsson was, although (a) it was totally flukey, and (b) I don't know how they pulled a double-minor out of it—the stick hit the helmet, not the face, didn't it?

I didn't mean they should go back to clutch and grab, I was just hinting that the cure seems to be just as bad as the disease. Go back to the keep-the-feet-moving rule and let them play some end-to-end hockey, and call coincidentals on the dives. Also, when did the stick become off limits? You should be allowed to play the stick with your stick, no? With all the power plays it looks like half-rink blue-line-to-clear. Highsticks are black-and-white so I'm okay with them. It's the judgment calls like hooking tht need to be examined.